Vacuum-tube lighting.



No. 645,0 Patentd Mar. 6,1900.

0. m5. mooma.

VACUUM TUBE LIGHTING.

(Application filed July 27. 1899.)

(No Model.)

THE NORRXS FETZRS co PROTO-UTHQ, WASHINGTON, u. c

' densers and other accessory appliances.

nurse drains DANIEL MOFARLAN MOORE, OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO THE MOORE ELECTRICAL COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

VACUUM TUBE LIGHTING.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 645,041, dated March 6, 1900.

Application filed July 27, 1899.

To (tZZ whomit may concern:

Be it known that I, DANIEL MCFARLAN MOORE, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Newark, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Vacuum- Tube Lighting,of which the following is specification.

My invention relates to vacuum-tube lighting; and it consists in a novel and simplified combination of apparatus whereby superior results are obtained so far as concerns economy of power, simplicity of apparatus, and steadiness of light. Hitherto in this art vacuum-tubes or other devices adapted to give light under the action of similar electrical effects have been used in combination with circuit breakers or interrupters and con- My present invention or discovery consists in the direct combination of the vacuum-tubes hitherto employed by me and source of alternating electric currents of suitable frequency and voltage connected directly to the caps or terminals of said tube and exciting the same to luminosity by the uninterrupted or continuous application of the alternating electromotive forces produced by a suitable alternating-current generator. The illumination of the tube is produced directly by said alternating voltages or electromotive forces and Without the breaking of any circuit either of direct or alternating current.

The vacuum-tube may be of any form, and the metal cap-pieces or terminals which are secured upon the ends of the tube may be applied thereto in any of the ways heretofore employed; but it is preferable that the union between the cap or terminals of the tube should be as close as possible and that the extent of superficial surface in contact should be the same as heretofore employed in connection with tubes operated from circuitbreakers, reactive coils, and other devices. Preferably the tubes are of uniform diameter between the caps. They contain rarefied air or other gas rarefied to the degree best suited for luminosity, and they are destitute of internally-projectin g electrodes passing through Serial No. 725,239. (No model.)

their walls at their ends, the only electrodes being the cap-pieces, which may be of metal foil or other conductor, suchas a conducting paint.

In the accompanying drawing I have shown diagrammatically a combination of apparatus 5 5 embodying my invention and comprising tubes excited by alternating currents taken directly from an alternating-current dynamo generator.

The vacuum or luminous tube is indicated 6b in the diagram by the numeral 1 and the alternating-current dynamo by the numeral 2. The connections and circuits are all of the ordinary character, the union between the circuit and the tube being by direct connection as'close as possible between the terminal upon the tube and the circuit-wire. The caps or terminals of said tubes are in the nature of condenser-surfaces and are indicated by the numeral 4. p

I find in practice that with a voltage of about six thousand and with a frequency of about fifty thousand periods per minute sur prising results in steadiness of light and economy of power are obtained. I do not limit myself, however, to this precise voltage or precise frequency, as very superior results may be obtained by using periods and voltages varying very considerably from those named.

What I claim as my invention is As a means for producing illumination by the agency of electricity, the combination substantially as described of vacuum-tube lamps having terminals of the character described and an alternating-current dynamo connected directly to said terminals and exciting said lamps to luminosity by the uninterrupted or continuous application of the alternating electromotive force generated by said dynamo as and for the purpose set forth. Signed at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, this 21st day of July, A. D. 1899.

DANIEL MGFARLAN MOORE. Witnesses:

DELBERT H.'DECKER, J. E. LUDLow. 

